Planning, timeboxing, and setting goals.

I’m doing a lot of planning right now. It started with planning for work, looking at what needed to get done in the coming months and year ahead. But then I started looking at how I could apply that to other items outside of work.

As a remote worker, deciding how I structure my day and spend my time is an ongoing task. Timeboxing has been helpful for that.

For years I’ve been using my calendar to log my time spent on tasks. But blocking my time out, days or weeks in advance, is something I’ve started doing only in the last year or so.

I don’t always stick to the blocks of time I lay out. But I do try to make sure that the blocks get taken care of before the week is over. So if something comes up, or if I decide to work on something else, I’m not pushing off my to-do items.

I’ve been following this routine of disciplined timeboxing for the last three months. Now I’m thinking about how timeboxing can work at a higher level, months and years into the future.

For example, what about a five year plan? So that’s five big blocks. What five big things do I want to accomplish?

2018
2019
2020
2021
2022

Zooming in – for each quarter of each year, what are my goals?

2018

January – March

April – June

July – September

October – December

(…)

And for each month? Each week?

You can see how the granularity of timeboxing can scale up to encompass broader goals.

I turn 30 next year, and one of my big goals is to pay off the last of my student debt before I do. And then, from there, I’m timeboxing the future. I’m taking things from my bucket list and putting them on the calendar.